Sykes, 70, of Seattle, had been missing for three days when a search for her was suspended Saturday afternoon after the discovery of a body.

The cause of her death, which was ruled an accident, was hypothermia, the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office told the Los Angeles Times. Coroner's officials said arteriosclerotic vascular disease, a type of hardening of the arteries, was a contributing factor.

@Judge and Jury All loss of life is indeed regrettable, but if SAR is their job then they knew and accepted the risks when they applied. If they were volunteers they also know the risks involved. This women was hiking in a national park just as 300,000,000 others do each and every year.

Her boyfriend and hiking partner, Robert Morthorst, declined to comment.

Sykes and Morthorst were on the Owyhigh Lakes Trail on Wednesday night when they found that melting snow had cut off their path, according to a news release from the park.

Sykes went ahead but Morthorst believed the snow made hiking the eight-mile trail too difficult and stayed behind, a park spokeswoman said.

“Ms. Sykes is a very strong hiker and she wanted to go ahead, and her hiking partner had chosen not to hike on the snow, so they agreed to meet each other back at the same point,” said spokeswoman Mimi Gorman, when crews were still searching.

Morthorst reported Sykes missing about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday. Park officials later said she was carrying enough survival gear for one night.

Her death comes less than a month after six climbers trying to reach Mt. Rainier's summit disappeared in late May. All are presumed dead. Park officials suspended efforts to recover their bodies in the treacherous terrain.

The search for a missing off-duty Arcadia firefighter who vanished in the Los Padres National Forest more than a week ago has been significantly scaled back to only a “handful” of volunteers, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office announced Sunday.

Amid heightened speculation about whether he will seek the Democratic presidential nomination, Vice President Joe Biden remains at least a month from a decision and has largely left preparatory work to a small circle of trusted longtime aides.

Perched in his wheelchair, "Big Jim" Blake confidently rolls the wooden floors of his old shoot-'em-up saloon, founded here in 1893. The history of the Cowboy Bar is populated with drifters, outlaws and outliers, and its present proprietor brims with wild yarns and tall tales.

President Obama will impose even steeper cuts on greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants than previously expected, White House officials said early Sunday, in what the president called the most significant step the country has ever taken to fight global warming.